RICHARD MOORE: Last Wednesday I was rung by a consular official from the Chinese consul here in Melbourne and we had a 10-minute conversation roughly. And she told me in no uncertain terms that I had to withdraw the film from the film festival and that I had to justify my actions in including it in the program.

I went on to tell her that I didn't need to justify my actions, we're an independent arts organisation and we answer to our own sense of morals I guess, but we don't need to justify to an external force or an external government why and what films we put in the program.

LEXI METHERELL: So Richard what's happened?

RICHARD MOORE: We've had a wave of reaction both in support but also negative wise. Now it transpires that a couple of other Chinese independent film makers have decided to withdraw their films from the film festival. So effectively we'll be going out this year with I think no films from mainland China are in our program.

LEXI METHERELL: What of those producers of those films told you?

RICHARD MOORE: One of those producers of the, of two films that have been withdrawn Cry me a River by Jia Zhang-ke and A Perfect Life by Emily Tang have said that they object to the film playing in the festival - do you know there's been ethnic tension in western provinces of China recently and people were killed.

And they object to the documentary playing and they also say that they object to Rebiya Kadeer coming here as a guest.

LEXI METHERELL: Do you get any understanding that there had been any government interference with their decisions?

RICHARD MOORE: I can't speculate any further than that.

LEXI METHERELL: But these are Chinese based producers and film makers?

RICHARD MOORE: Yes, these are independent Chinese film makers who would want to continue to be living and working in China and filming in China.

LEXI METHERELL: What was your response to them?

RICHARD MOORE: I told the film makers that I was upset and disappointed that their films wouldn't be playing in the festival, we want those films to play in the festival, that's why we invited them. They're interesting films, they're good films and we have a very politically savvy and interested switched on audience down here in Melbourne.

And they deserve to see the best of world cinema and we consider these films to be among the best in the last year of world cinema; to cut it short we said we were disappointed.

LEXI METHERELL: What were those films about that are being pulled.

RICHARD MOORE: The one film that is being taken out of the festival called Petition is probably the one with the most politically sensitive subject matter. It concerns petitioners who go to the local authorities and complain about issues that are happening on a local level and then the consequences of that.

It was filmed over a 12-year period by Zhao Liang who's a very brave film maker and it's a shame that we're not able to play it.

LEXI METHERELL: And the other two films, what sort of films were they?

RICHARD MOORE: They were, they're not political by, by nature at all.

MARK COLVIN: The executive director of the Melbourne International Film Festival, Richard Moore, speaking to Lexi Metherell.